The word Activity is displayed in a watercolor font.
Activity
Write a Letter: Traveling on the Erie Canal
Grades: 3-5
Educator led
Have students imagine they have just arrived in Michigan by traveling the Erie Canal. What was their journey like? Where did they come from? What did they see? What happened along the canal ride? Then have students compose a letter from the perspective of a traveler. They may want to write to family members back home, or write a letter to another traveler they met on the boat. Encourage students to be creative! Have students display their letters in the classroom or even mail them to each other to share what they wrote.
In the 1830s, people coming to Michigan traveled along dirt roads that followed the routes of Indian trails. These roads were full of holes and often muddy. After traveling on one of these early roads, one person wrote that she had just been “jolted to… Read More
Martin Stockwell was born in 1818 in New York state. He didn’t go to school much when he was young because he worked on the family farm. When he was 17 years old, Martin decided he wanted to go to Michigan and have his own… Read More
The Michigan History Center specifies the subject area of Defining Michigan from 1787 with the creation of the Northwest Territory via the Northwest Ordinance to 1855 after the last of a series of treaties that effectively removed large numbers of Anishnaabic people from Michigan. The… Read More
